HEAT IN I-SAN'S FORECAST.

Byline: Larry Lipson Restaurant Critic

SPICY HOT Thai food from the northeast region of Thailand known as I-san dominates the menu of a tiny Studio City restaurant appropriately named I-san Cafe.

Most local restaurantgoers have become quite familiar with Thailand's never-bland, sometimes extremely spicy fare.

But even I-san cooks food that shows a certain restraint in its pepperiness.

One can order, for example, noodle soups with thin or flat rice noodles in a clear, flavorful broth studded with steamed chicken or fish balls ($4.25 each) or shrimp ($4.75). All three come with bean sprouts, lettuce and green onion in the soup. And there's also a combination offering ($4.95) of all three.

And the kitchen's seasoned - but not spicy-hot - marinated rotisserie chicken is marvelously moist, with a crispy, slightly charred skin and firm, yielding flesh at $8.50 for half a bird, plus two side accompaniments and a hot-sweet dipping sauce. The chicken can also be had for a mere $5.50 without sides.

Those side options include wonton soup, tom yum kai, fruit salad, green salad, northeastern Thai som tum papaya salad, roasted corn, a tofu and a vegetable roll or fresh spring roll.

Incidentally, if you want to fire up this - or any food item - each of the few tables here have containers of hot green chile or hot red chile saucings.

But the majority of I-san's fare has not the slightest need for added heat - either the spicy kind of heat or the temperature.

Traditional soups like the coconut milk-infused tom kha and clear tom yum ($3.25 to $4.75) possess plenty of chile pepper power, along with the requisite umbrella mushrooms, galanga root, lemongrass, lime leaves and cilantro. And they usually arrive steaming hot.

And if you like to be challenged, I-san's spicy salads - cold meets hot - can be nicely refreshing, like the hearty nam tok ($8.50), which sports slices of slightly crisped charbroiled top sirloin with romaine lettuce, Thai basil, cilantro, onions and a chile-lime sauce, or larb kai ($6.50), with spicy minced chicken, fresh mint, romaine lettuce, chile and lime.

And entree-style grilled meat plates definitely worth trying are the very tasty pork chop (moo yang , $8.75) and the Crying Tiger Bangkok steak ($10.75).

Both indicate positive results from skillful cooking in I-san's narrow, cramped-view kitchen.

And if the inclusive plastic-wrapped sticky rice served in a quaint little basket isn't enough to satisfy as a main-course accompaniment, there's always the possibility of a platter of spicy hot, garlicky ``drunken'' flat rice noodles mixed with pieces of chicken or beef ($6.50) to perk up the palate and pump up the quantity.

It's very easy here to fill up a table with numerous shareable plates, especially in view of the moderate pricing. The most expensive dish is the Bangkok steak with two sides for $13.75.

And lunchers can enjoy even greater bargains, with seven meals priced from $5.50 to $8.50 that include rice, soup and salad.

But whether it's for lunch or dinner, it's smart to remember that I-san's food can be mighty hot.

So don't come here and get upset; northeastern Thai food is supposed to be that way.

Larry Lipson, [phone]

larry.lipson(at)dailynews.com

I-SAN CAFE - Food: Three stars; Service: Three and one half stars; Value: Three and one half stars

Where: 11044 Ventura Blvd., Studio City.

Phone: [phone].

Meals/hours: Open for lunch, dinner and snacks from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. weekdays (lunch specials from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.) and from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday. Closed Sunday.

Food type: Thai.

Cost: Starters from $3.25 to $8.50, main items from $5.50 to $11.50.

Credit cards: MC, V.

Patio dining: None.

Parking/valet: Free parking in small lot.

Full bar: No alcohol.

Music/entertainment: None.

Takeout/delivery: Full takeout menu and free delivery to limited area; $15 minimum.

Reservations: Taken.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- 2) Kay Naksuk, right, owner of the I-san Cafe in Studio City, offers Thai-style rotisserie chicken, above, and som tum, a northeastern Thai papaya salad combining tomatoes, green beans and peanuts in a chili lime dressing, topped with grilled shrimp.

Joel Lugavere/Special to the Daily News